


Good Night Sweet Prince

by Markov_Debris



Series: Company Series [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Episode: s01e05 Small Worlds, Series Spoilers, Spoilers Shakespear's Hamlet, Spoilers Shakespear's Twelth Night, Suicide contemplation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 19:18:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12115452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markov_Debris/pseuds/Markov_Debris
Summary: After the events of Small Worlds Jack is contemplating suicide when Ianto decides to discuss Shakespeare.





	Good Night Sweet Prince

**Author's Note:**

> This Story is a one-shot that was written as part of the Company Series and I have it and the others in a series of their own called Company Companions. The only Company Companions I will not do this with are those that take place during a story, those I will include as part of that story but they will be identified as such (hopefully when the time comes it will all make sense).  
> Regarding this story I am hoping that you do not need to have seen either Hamlet or Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare to follow this conversation but be warned there are spoilers, particularly for Hamlet.

They had returned to the Hub in silence, resentfully completed their tasks and gone home.

All of them except Ianto.  The Welshman had not known what had happened and he was the only one to be civil to him.

Jack had gone to sit, brooding in his office while the others ignored him.  All he could think of was failing Estelle and the howls of grief of Jasmine’s mother.

He just sat there staring at his gun.  Wondering if perhaps it would lead him to the death he wanted the death he felt he deserved.  The death he knew he was not going to be granted.

His reverie was broken by a long fingered hand gently picking up the gun.  He looked up to see Ianto.  The young man’s eyes were intent on the weapon in his hands.

“Do it!” Jack whispered his voice half pleading, half challenging.

Ianto just looked at him, his expression unreadable and said,

> “ _Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; /And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; / And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: / A villain kills my father; and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same villain send /To heaven. / O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. / He took my father grossly, full of bread; / With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; / And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? / But in our circumstance and course of thought, / 'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged, / To take him in the purging of his soul, / When he is fit and season'd for his passage? / No! / Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, / Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; / At gaming, swearing, or about some act / That has no relish of salvation in't; / Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, / And that his soul may be as damn'd and black / As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: / This physic but prolongs thy sickly days._ ”

“Hamlet act 3 scene 3.” Jack said in surprise.

“Hamlet grieves his father’s death.  He elicits the proof he needs that the ghost’s words are true and that his Uncle Claudius is a murderer.  Before he confronts his mother, who is now his uncle’s wife, he comes across Claudius vulnerable and in prayer.” Ianto said softly.

 “You spoke his soliloquy very well.  I am familiar with the play, I once saw Olivier performing it.” Jack answered with brusque confusion.

“Hamlet is not mad then only faking it.  Despite the re-awakened need for revenge he cannot kill while Claudius is asking for forgiveness, for absolution.”

“Like Claudius, ‘ _My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go_.’” Jack said quietly.

Jack understood Claudius in that moment, when he most felt the guilt over his deeds.  His own guilt was so great forgiveness seemed unaskable; from Jasmine’s mother, from Ianto.

Jack was not sure why he wanted Ianto’s forgiveness, he was right to destroy the cyberwoman.  Or was it over the young man’s accusation that he was an uncaring monster.  Maybe it was just that Jack wants there to be a peace between them.

Overriding such wishes right now is the desire for Ianto to pull the trigger.  To feel the elation and bitterness of revenge.  For the Welshman to follow through on his impassioned words that later grief seemed to have made hollow.

“You reminded me of that quote but that is not what Hamlet, the play, has been making me think about.” Ianto said quietly.

“No?  You are not contemplating the question of to be or not to be are you?” Jack asked slightly alarmed as he realised his was not the only forehead present to press the barrel against.

“Torchwood doesn’t have slings or arrows.” The young answered with a small smile, then continued quietly, “I am contemplating the tragic consequences of Hamlet’s actions.

“He wavers then because he cannot kill in cold blood then goes to torment his mother, to test how much she is a traitor to his father’s name.  He kills Polonious while his blood is up, wishing he were his hated uncle.

“It is an act that makes Hamlet the same as Claudius.  Ophelia becomes what Hamlet pretends to be as she lets grief consume her and her sanity.  Laerties becomes a more direct version of Hamlet as he too seeks revenge for the loss of his father and sister.

“Hamlet, his mother, Claudius and Laerties all die in the final act as Claudius and Laerties plans to poison Hamlet in a friendly duel, whilst succeeding, rebounds on both Laerties and Hamlet’s mother.  Hamlet slays Claudius while Laerties begs Hamlet’s forgiveness before he dies.  Horatio is left with the duty of telling the full tale of the Lord and friend he loved and mourns.”

“Only Shakespeare would have the gall to produce over four hours about the misery and pain caused by grief and vengeance.” Jack stated with an air of bitterness.  He was not sure if Ianto had a point to make or if like Hamlet he was just trying to put off the inevitable.

“The warning is not just about vengeance, it’s about deception and perception.  Only Horatio knows Hamlet is not mad.  He is the only survivor because Hamlet’s actions do not have the same meaning to him as they do for the others.

“The reward for his loyalty and trust is being given the duty to tell the tale.  That is why Hamlet deliberately makes sure he cannot drink the poison, extracts his promise to clear his name, so that his beloved friend cannot follow him into death.” Ianto replied earnestly.

“Ianto this is a fascinating discussion but seeing the play and doing an English Literature comprehension are two very different things.  I think I have missed the point somewhere,” Jack said honestly.  He was feeling uncomfortable with a discussion about lies.

Ianto sighed deeply as though he had come across a lost cause he was fond of.

“I’ve decided I am not going to be Hamlet goaded on by a ghost to be cruel and inflict pain on those around me.  I will not be Ophelia drowned by the madness of grief.  Nor shall I be Laerties whose revenge is as justifiable as Hamlets but whose deceptive trick is turned against him.

“In my grief I am going to be Olivia.” Ianto stated then turned and left, taking Jack’s Webley with him.

Jack blinked for a moment wondering just who Olivia was.

Then he realised she was the Countess in Twelfth Night.  The one who vowed to mourn the loss of her brother for seven years and thus rejected Duke Orseno’s suit.

Olivia stopped mourning when she fell in love.

Jack suddenly knew what it was that Ianto had to forgive him for.  It was not the final death of Lisa.  If Ianto thought that he would have held onto his revenge the same way Hamlet had with Claudius.

It was his order to Ianto to execute Lisa.  He told had Gwen to keep a hold of her home life, and asked Ianto to give his soul to Torchwood but killing just as Hamlet’s ghost had asked his son to condemn himself.

Jack suddenly felt a deep affection for Shakespeare.  Just as Jack had been certain Ianto’s intelligence would make him see that Lisa had died in Canary Wharf, the Bard had taught the Welshman the consequences of deception and revenge.

Suddenly it occurred to Jack that if Ianto was going to mourn like Olivia did, that mean he was in need of a Cesario and Sebastion.  It was something to think carefully about he did not want to become Orsino.

To the empty Hub Jack suddenly said “‘ _Good night sweet prince; / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!_ ’ but come back to me and be ‘ _fair cruelty_ ’.”

 

Fin


End file.
